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Monday, July 09, 2018

The unreasonable claim God is in their corner

Star Online - Religion cannot be the legal basis:

by Siti Kasim


LET me get to the point. I don’t care what your religion says - wrong is wrong.

A widow should not have to die in a fire with the dead husband. And under no circumstances whatsoever shall a child be married off to a man. 


 

Malaysians need to demand that our Government put a stop to child marriage. We need to demand that our politicians, Ministers, Deputy Prime Ministers, their offices and officials uphold basic human rights.

Their allegiance must be towards the protection of children without any ifs and buts. There must be no negotiation or consideration when it comes to protecting our children. Child marriage is abuse of the worst kind.

We are no longer living in the middle ages where a child, especially a female one, is deemed a property, a chattel to be traded for money, influence or favours. Something that may be the norm of ages past or even years past does not justify its continuation in any way, shape or form when human civilisation has progressed and we are informed by knowledge and values that say such practices are an abomination of human rights.

Malaysia is the perfect case study where religion is allowed to dictate the laws of the land and in so doing has failed its people miserably. Malaysia’s civil law dictates that the legal minimum age of marriage is 18 for male and 16 for female. And yet in the period between 2010 and 2015, approximately an average of 1,045 child marriage applications were recorded per year to Muslim children (Hansard May 19, 2016).

Let that number sink in.

Imagine the lost childhood and potential life opportunities snatched from that child, and possibly for his or her progenies, to grow as full human beings. Imagine the horrors a young girl goes through at the hands of a sick paedophile. All this in the modern world of 21st century Malaysia!

Why?

Because in Malaysia, in spite of our civil laws, the state Islamic laws allow 16 as the marriageable age for girls and the Shariah courts can provide consent for any age below that. That endorsement provided the implicit authority for paedophiles and perverts, weak parents, authority figures, even police and political leaders with a certain religious conservative-bent to be not just apologists but also enablers of child marriages in this country.

And thus we hear the office of the Deputy Prime Minister suggesting a standard operating procedure for child marriages? Really? For child marriages? This can only happen when religion trumps reason. 


In the midst of a contentious American presidential campaign in 1960, John F Kennedy famously said “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me”.

That is how our elected representatives and political leaders need to be if our nation is to be united and to progress, and our citizens irrespective of beliefs, and non-belief, is to be treated equal and with full dignity and human rights.

And here we are with child marriage, and the only defence for it has been by religion. That is precisely why religion and its influence cannot have a place in governance. Any right-thinking human being educated in this century will never agree to even a hint of allowing child marriages. But religion and the religious do not care for right-thinking.

It only cares that you follow its edict, despite many scholars casting doubt on the veracity of the saying, or hadith, used to assert Aisha’s young age. Reason and humanity be damned.

Taking all known accounts and records of Aisha’s age at marriage, estimates of her age range from nine to 19. Because of this, it is impossible to know with any certainty how old Aisha was.

What we do know is what the Quran says about marriage: that it is valid only between consenting adults, and that a woman has the right to choose her own spouse.

As the living embodiment of Islam, Prophet Muhammad’s actions reflect the Quran’s teachings on marriage, even if the actions of some Muslim regimes and individuals do not.

A stateswoman, scholar, mufti, and judge, Aisha combined spirituality, activism and knowledge and remains a role model for many Muslim women today. The gulf between her true legacy and her depiction in Islamophobic materials is not merely historically inaccurate; it is also an insult to the memory of a pioneering woman.

Those who manipulate her story to justify the abuse of young girls, and those who manipulate it in order to depict Islam as a religion that legitimises such abuse have more in common than they think.

Both demonstrate a disregard for what we know about the times in which the Prophet lived, and for the affirmation of female autonomy which her story illustrates.

When we invoke religion, faith or belief in public policy, worse still in law, how do we determine truth? Faith and belief by its very definition has no anchor in reason. Who will be the judge of it? As it is we already have a Chief Justice of the Shariah Court in Selangor proposing an SOP for evaluating the mystical and witchcraft (sihir) in adjudicating cases.

Once unreason takes hold of authority, who will stop it? They cannot be reasoned with.

The unreasonable have God in their corner – so they say. The apologists caught between unreasoned belief and humanity does not have the courage to act on their humanitarian conscience because they believe their God dictate it so. And society and the citizenry suffer. Who shall rescue the poor children?

Religion must be banished from government and governance. Humanitarian empathy and reason must be the primary driver of law and order.

Our children cannot be bargained or compromised for any God or faith.

There is no excuse that justifies the destruction of a child’s life in return for pleasing a supposed religious allowance.

It is time our elected government and representatives put a stop to this travesty of human misery and child abuse.

Raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 irrespective of religion and/or custom without exception. No SOP required.


I need to consult with my husband before I can give my DPM's advice


35 comments:

  1. I only know najib and rosmah are guilty as hell and must be punished in front of kaytee. After that kaytee too must be punished as well

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  2. The best way is to convince the Council of Rulers, as the respective heads of Islam in their states, to increase the minimum age to 18. Politicians will only kick the can down the road to the next administration. They have no balls, especially the Minister of Girls. Hannah the Deputy Minister has the will to do it but she is a Christian so it won’t look right.

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  3. Ponder this:

    “I am not the Islamic candidate for pm. I am the XXX party’s candidate for pm, who happens also to be a Muslim. I do not speak for my faith on public matters, and the faith does not speak for me”.

    Not even mamak DARE to say so at this juncture of his high personality score!

    WHY?

    The zombies & the blur-sotongs that form the majority of the populace!

    Unless more melayu DARE to be as vocal as Siti Kasim, yr proposal of our elected government and representatives put a stop to this travesty of human misery and child abuse is liken to a irritating mosquito hum.

    The politikus, of all hues, know which sides of their breads r been buttered.

    Don't just singularly blame PH lah!

    Instead, put all the blames on the mental development of a bunch of entitlement addicts, who r drowning out their daily sins by faithfully following an archaic set of doctrines that have also been twisted by the manipulating cleric class!

    Wakakakaka…… mental evolution means not for another generation of hard-nosed Siti Kasims!

    ie

    Condition 1 - more Siti Kasims

    Condition 2 - time lapse to evolve

    Meanwhile the zombieic shackles remain solidly bonded on all melayu!


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. but didn't Mahathir claim he's better???

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    2. I blame you instead. I pray to God that Kaytee would be raped by vicious women.

      P.S : I am pretty pissed of this cheebye who seems to ask us to do dirty works for motherfucker kaytee

      Fuck you kaytee la!

      Delete
    3. I am very sad and disappointed you keep accusing me of fCking your mum

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    4. Kaytee....dont mess with maryam lee or else i ask his dad to give you motherfucker cheebye kaytee a very very hard time

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    5. I did NOT fCk your mother lah

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    6. 语无伦次 yǔ wú lún cì !!

      Sign of going insane le……

      Tsk… tsk… serve u right lah.

      Delete
    7. If you mess with maryam lee, i will cut kaytee kukuciao live

      Delete
    8. If you mess with maryam lee, i will cut kaytee kukuciao live

      Delete
  4. We don’t want an SOP to legalize pedophilia.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don’t give paedophiles an SOP to legalise sex with children.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But its okay for the cross man of cloth to bugger their virgin choir boys?

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  6. The Malaysian Constitution clearly assigns Muslim personal laws under the jurisdiction of Syaria courts.
    Marriages are clearly under the ambit of personal laws.

    So, until Parliament sits , and the necessary laws amended, the Minister has little choice but to live within the law as it stands.

    There can be tightened administrative rules and procedures, which is what Kak Wan Is proposing, but the law as currently stands takes precedence - until it can be amended.

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  7. is it really islamic to marry a 11 years old? is tis common in most islamic countries?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Niger - 79%
      Central African Republic - 68%
      Chad - 67%
      Bangladesh - 59%

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    2. Club of dooms mah!

      Wakakakaka…

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    3. i think tis have to do with poverty n literally rate rather than religion?

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    4. All examples of super basket economies.
      Are you sure you want to go that way ?

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    5. on one side of the coin you're correct, on the other side there are the lusty dirty old (middle aged) men

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  8. Aisyah was not six yrs old when the prophet saw married her.

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    Replies
    1. Aisyah was 6 years old when she married Prophet Muhammad but the marriage was consummated when she was 9.

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    2. Wakakakaka……

      Consummated at 9!!

      Wow! This zombie tribe must be maturing real fast. Truly non human le, as human physiological CAN'T develop fully at such an early stage of growing up!

      BTW, did the Quran states that?

      Or yr paedophilic hadith/sunnah, as invented by the cleric class, states so!

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    3. Where's ur source? Bukhari the persian??

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    4. what zombie tribe - in those medieval days men of many races including Chinese, Indians, Europeans, Far Eastern nations like Japan and Korea married young girls. Maybe your ancestors did as well if they were not coolies in medieval China. It's a historical fact that people married very young girl then. Looks like you must be a zombie yourself

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    5. Have u read anything in the holy texts of the other ancients about peodophilic doctrine, except the zombie tribe's?

      Not even the Tibetan Tantric doctrines!

      Married young girls & not consummate the marriage until the girls reached puberty were the MEDIEVAL norm.

      The key point is medieval, ie long long time ago when human physiological understangings were very lacking & woman folks were just a class above slaves!

      So, what has a medieval custom, that has lost its significant, got to do with the current topic?

      R u condoning discarded inhuman ancient practice to justify a bunch of modern zombies trying to hold on to their peodophilic urge?

      Tsk… tsk… sigh… wordsmith-on-the-edge-of-going-insane, u CAN do better than this trashy, incoherent excuse!

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    6. weren't we talking about Aisah?

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    7. Moron, u lost yr touch meh?

      R we talking about Aisha specifically OR peodophiliac in general?

      Aisha IS just the excuse for the peodophilia to propagate their inhuman act!

      Delete
    8. KT, part of your statement in the entry above, i believe was taken from the guardian.com (just punch in 'was aisyah 6 yrs old' then the topics will appear on our screen). There are other sources which to me are both convincing and logical since they were substantiated with historical events (eg. the battle of uhud, age of aisyah's elder sister, the year she died), when comapared to that persian collector of stories. And I found contradictions in his collection wrt aisya. alternatively, you may want to ask quora digest concerning this issue. So, I can simply say that aisya was not married at 6 yrs old neither was she 9 yrs old when the marriage consummated.

      Sadly, some muslims percaya bulat2 without verification or don't bother to investigate the works of collectors of stories.

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    9. there's No such thing as paedophilia in those ancient-medieval times, so stop bullshitting like a bigoted moron

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    10. kampong lad, I did not extract from Guardian - just a coincidence

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    11. Wow!!

      "there's No such thing as paedophilia in those ancient-medieval times"

      My goodness, who's the moron here?

      Who r u trying to salvage?

      Delete
  9. Paedophiles are beasts of Lusts. They cannot even think it is evil and against civil society.

    ReplyDelete